THE WORLD OF LADY LAZARUS:
A Little Guide to the History and Metaphysics of the LADY LAZARUS Historical Fantasy Series
By Michele Lang
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2011 Michele Lang
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Introduction: The Big Idea Behind LADY LAZARUS
(essay first published at John Scalzi’s Whatever Blog on September 8, 2010 –
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2010/09/08/the-big-idea-michele-lang/ )
I first read the poem “Lady Lazarus” as a literal-minded freshman in college. I knew it was supposed to be an extended metaphor for Sylvia Plath’s suicide attempts and her fraught relationship with her father, but I preferred to read it straight up, as a revenge anthem of a Jewish woman who returns from the dead to kill the Nazis who had murdered her.
I liked my interpretation way better. I mean, how can you read lines like these:
Out of the ash
I rise with my red hair
And I eat men like air
And not consider the possibilities for mayhem? Even better, what if this girl, who could die and die again, had some way to stop the murderers before they killed anybody else?
I wanted to write that story for myself, wanted it bad. My parents are both Holocaust survivors, and to me the poem “Lady Lazarus” was an exercise in fantasy, the ultimate “what if.”
But such ponderings are fraught with danger. As an interviewer pointed out to me recently, the Holocaust is the third rail of historical fantasy — a million volts of energy humming there, don’t touch it or you’re dead.
I’ll be honest with you. I was afraid to write this book. The seed of this story stayed dormant in my mind for many years. It took a lot of writing, and a lot of living, before I had the guts to try to write Lady Lazarus.
Before that, I did everything I could to avoid touching that third rail. Magda Lazarus, the girl who refused to stay dead, kept following me as I moved to Boston, to Buffalo, to Connecticut. As I developed my writing muscles, I tried to satisfy her with a story set in a different, less challenging place. I tried writing her story set on another planet (really!). In contemporary New York. And all the while, she kept whispering, “No. You know where I belong.”
I didn’t want to go there, the nightmare country where my parents come from. But Magda Lazarus herself insisted. I didn’t pick this story, it followed me into the dark alleys of my mind and pinned me against the wall. It wouldn’t let me go until I wrote it.
My book Lady Lazarus is essentially about the power of our individual choices to change our lives, and consequently the world. To write Magda Lazarus’s story, I had to choose to face my own fears head on, and imagine a world in which magic could serve as a countervailing force against evil.
At bottom, I was afraid to write about the war because it wasn’t my story to tell. I didn’t want to hurt my family by leaping across the wall of fire they had passed through at such a cost to survive.
In the end, I had to weigh my fears against the raw need to tell this story. And the story won. I resolved to write this book if I could, and to fix my commitment I told someone in my family, someone I adore, my decision to write Lady Lazarus.
“You can’t write about that!” this beloved person instinctively said. “You can’t stop the whole war. Maybe you can save a little village, but you can’t stop what happened. It’s wrong. You can’t.”
At the time, I couldn’t articulate the well-thought out considerations of alt-hist pros like Debra Doyle and Jim Macdonald. People in other quarters have implied to me that a topic like World War II is sacred, and a mere genre writer like myself should not sully the real-life history with my imaginings.
But what about Sylvia Plath? Quentin Tarantino and Inglourious Basterds? This is my third rail, dammit, and I have the same right to hit those million volts as everybody else.
I wish I’d had the presence of mind to say to this dear family member, “The question ‘what if’ is the basis of all creative thought. My imagining a different past doesn’t trivialize what actually happened, it explores the ways in which all of us can transcend, or not transcend, the evils that beset us. Asking ‘what if?’ doesn’t negate the lives of Grandpa Gyula, Grandma Tosca, and all the others. It is a way to honor them.”
But none of these noble sentiments came up in our conversation. It’s as simple as this: saying “you can’t” to a writer is like waving a red cape in front of a bull. And Magda Lazarus, the apparition who haunted me and who wouldn’t stay dead, insisted I choose to follow her into the fire.
And, well, here we are. Here she is.
* * *
It’s been some months since the original edition of LADY LAZARUS was released into the wild. I’ve been gratified to find that despite my many historical and spiritual heresies, the book has been well received by readers of historical fantasy as well as readers whose own families were affected by World War II.
I have gotten a lot of requests to provide a reader’s companion to LADY LAZARUS, to provide some historical and metaphysical context. Of course, my hope is that the book stands alone, but for those, like me, who are obsessed with the history and the mysticism of the people in Eastern Europe in the years leading up to the war, this little guide is for you.
It is not intended as an exhaustive history of the period, or a definitive guide to Jewish or occult mysticism, but as an introduction, a launching point for people who are interested in exploring further.
I hope that you find it interesting and helpful, and as always welcome feedback from my readers. Please contact me to let me know how I can make this little companion book more useful – find me at my website www.michelelang.com
This little guide is organized in three parts. First, we have the prologue of LADY LAZARUS, which itself provides some context for readers who haven’t yet read the book, and sets the stage again for people who are looking at this guide after reading the book.
Second, you will find a short compendium of the history and mysticism in the order in which you will find them in LADY LAZARUS.
Finally, you will find additional essays about some of the issues that arose while conducting research for the books.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy!
PROLOGUE, LADY LAZARUS
JULY, 1945, Paris
I damned my soul in the summer of 1939. I did it for the noblest reasons, the best ones – to save the people I loved; to make a terrible wrong turn right. But still I am tormented by the thought that my sins overwhelmed my intentions and turned my noble sacrifices to dust even as I made them. Only time will tell if my desperate measures, in the end, were justified.
In my mind, that final summer is saturated with golden sunlight. My beloved home – gilded Budapest, the Paris on the Danube – glittered brilliantly in the sun, even blighted as it was by the stain of fascism. The cafés still buzzed with energy, the city still throbbed at night. My Budapest still lived.
And I felt at home there like no other place I have lived before or since. To me, a girl of only twenty, Budapest was the culmination of a life’s dream of freedom. My family, originally from the northern mountain town of Tokaj, was drawn to Budapest’s brilliant light at the end of the nineteenth century, and my father, a wine trader, eventually made his fortune.
Not even the depredations of Bela Kun’s Bolshevik regime in 1919, followed by the genial fascist toad, that hypocrite Regent Horthy, not even an army of their small-minded followers could destroy the restless creativity of the city. I knew it was dangerous to be a Jew. But I had one secret advantage, and I clung to it for dear life.
I was a Lazarus. And the eldest daughter of an eldest daughter.
The city teemed with magical folk, living alongside the pure mortals. Vampires, dryads, dwarves, other, hidden, immortal beings – and the adepts, the sorcerers, necromancers, and witches. As for me, I am a Lazarus witch. My power is passed from mother to daughter, and has been so conveyed since time out of mind.
My mother, bless her vanished soul, tried her best to teach me the Lazarus creed and how to use the power I inherited, and the dangers such a power brings, but I was born rebellious. And when she died suddenly, my training was still unfinished. I preferred to haunt the cafes, debate Communism and literary theory with half-starved poets living on weak tea and rum balls, indulge in mad affairs of the mind and heart that in the end led absolutely nowhere. In short, I was a young fool, but a happy one.
The trouble crept up on all of us, a shadow that lengthened over everything we knew. Horthy’s regime was dreadful, but after the disaster of Bela Kun, we all believed we could survive the Regent. So we, the Jews, kept our heads down and worked. And we, the witches, kept to our creed, respected the destructive potential of our powers and invoked them rarely. We told ourselves useful lies, that the trouble would soon pass. And a fragile balance held.
Such a state, balanced on lies, could not sustain itself for long. Despite this, when the end came, none of us was ready.
And now I hold my breath, my pen hovers over the paper before I write. How can I explain to you, a stranger, what has happened to me? At this pause in my earthly trials, I do not know which is better: to press forward and leave the past to die, or to commit my strange tale to paper.
Well I know the power of words. In many instances, I am the only witness, the only one still living who knows of the great-hearted sacrifices of those who are now gone, the only one who can now remember. So: I write this story not to glorify the living, but to honor the dead.
The summer of ’39 is seared into my mind, and lives on forever unchanged in my memory. Hitler had not yet invaded Poland, war had not yet exploded the world I had known into irredeemable shards. I was still a girl, the future still lay before me, indefinable, infinite with possibility.
I was still kissing-close to the people I loved most in the entire world. And simple love matters more than magic, treasure, or even the promise of eternal life. It is for love that I now set this strange tale into words.
Remember this as you read on, for though my story has its triumphs, in the end it has always come back to two fundamental questions:
Who do you love?
Do you seek the darkness or the light?
LADY LAZARUS: Historical Notes
World War II began on September 1, 1939, when Hitler invaded Poland and Britain and France declared war against Germany.
Hungary’s café culture was especially strong in the boom years after Jews became fully emancipated in the second half of the nineteenth century, and until World War II, it thrived despite war and economic upheaval. Artists, lawyers, businesspeople all conducted their business at the tables of over 400 coffeehouses in Budapest at the turn of the 20th century. Cafes like the New York, the Central, Astoria, and Jappan served pastries, food, alcohol, and coffee, always coffee, and many were open all hours. Cafes tended to specialize in their clientele, and since vampires, demons, witches, and other magical creatures did not publicly show themselves in “our” 1939 Budapest, both Café Mephisto and Café Istanbul are the products of my imagination.
Treaty of Trianon: Hungary, on the losing side of World War I aka The Great War, lost over two thirds of its land and population to five other countries as a result of this treaty, the Hungarian version of the Treaty of Versailles that punished Germany. Until WW II, the rallying cry “Nem, Nem, Soha” (‘No, No, Never!’) expressed the refusal of Hungarians to accept the terms of this treaty. The desire to regain this territory was one of the reasons Hungary threw its lot in with the Axis powers.
One effect of Trianon was that most of Hungary’s non-Magyar population was now absorbed into other surrounding countries. As a much more ‘Magyarized’ nation, Hungary expressed its nationality in a much more jingoistic way. The Jews of Hungary were more easily made into the enemy from within, the only “other” besides the Gypsies left in any large numbers inside Hungary’s borders.
The idea for the Lazarus witches was in part inspired by the poem “Lady Lazarus” by Sylvia Plath (1932-63). I read this poem my first year of college, and being literal-minded, I thought the idea of a Jewish woman returning from the dead to exact her revenge on Nazis was fabulous and deeply satisfying – I don’t think Plath herself meant to make this the point of her poem (I think this is an extended metaphor for her suicide attempts and her relationship with her father), but I also don’t think she would mind my literal interpretation.
Please search on the internet to find the text of this wonderful, evocative, haunting poem.
The Witch of Ein Dor (Endor) is mentioned in the Bible at 1 Samuel 28. A famed necromancer, she held a séance for King Saul even though he had outlawed astrologers and sorcerers. Here’s the relevant text:
3Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had lamented him, and buried him in Ramah, even in his own city. And Saul had put away those that divined by a ghost or a familiar spirit out of the land.
4 And the Philistines gathered themselves together, and came and pitched in Shunem; and Saul gathered all Israel together, and they pitched in Gilboa.
5 And when Saul saw the host of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly.
6 And when Saul inquired of the LORD, the LORD answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets.
7 Then said Saul unto his servants: 'Seek me a woman that divineth by a ghost, that I may go to her, and inquire of her.' And his servants said to him: 'Behold, there is a woman that divineth by a ghost at En-dor.'
8And Saul disguised himself, and put on other raiment, and went, he and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night; and he said: 'Divine unto me, I pray thee, by a ghost, and bring me up whomsoever I shall name unto thee.'
9 And the woman said unto him: 'Behold, thou knowest what Saul hath done, how he hath cut off those that divine by a ghost or a familiar spirit out of the land; wherefore then layest thou a snare for my life, to cause me to die?'
10 And Saul swore to her by the LORD, saying: 'As the LORD liveth, there shall no punishment happen to thee for this thing.'
11 Then said the woman: 'Whom shall I bring up unto thee?' And he said: 'Bring me up Samuel.'
12 And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice; and the woman spoke to Saul, saying: 'Why hast thou deceived me? for thou art Saul.'
13 And the king said unto her: 'Be not afraid; for what seest thou?' And the woman said unto Saul: 'I see a godlike being coming up out of the earth.'
14 And he said unto her: 'What form is he of?' And she said: 'An old man cometh up; and he is covered with a robe.' And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground, and prostrated himself.
15 And Samuel said to Saul: 'Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up?' And Saul answered: 'I am sore distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me, and answereth me no more, neither by prophets, nor by dreams; therefore I have called thee, that thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do.' {S}
16 And Samuel said: 'Wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing the LORD is departed from thee, and is become thine adversary?
17 And the LORD hath wrought for Himself; as He spoke by me; and the LORD hath rent the kingdom out of thy hand, and given it to thy neighbour, even to David.
18 Because thou didst not hearken to the voice of the LORD, and didst not execute His fierce wrath upon Amalek, therefore hath the LORD done this thing unto thee this day.
19 Moreover the LORD will deliver Israel also with thee into the hand of the Philistines; and to-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me; the LORD will deliver the host of Israel also into the hand of the Philistines.'
20 Then Saul fell straightway his full length upon the earth, and was sore
afraid, because of the words of Samuel; and there was no strength in him; for he had eaten no bread all the day, nor all the night.
21 And the woman came unto Saul, and saw that he was sore affrighted, and said unto him: 'Behold, thy handmaid hath hearkened unto thy voice, and I have put my life in my hand, and have hearkened unto thy words which thou spokest unto me.
22 Now therefore, I pray thee, hearken thou also unto the voice of thy handmaid, and let me set a morsel of bread before thee; and eat, that thou mayest have strength, when thou goest on thy way.'
23 But he refused, and said: 'I will not eat.' But his servants, together with the woman, urged him; and he hearkened unto their voice. So he arose from the earth, and sat upon the bed.
24 And the woman had a fatted calf in the house; and she made haste, and killed it; and she took flour, and kneaded it, and did bake unleavened bread thereof;
25 and she brought it before Saul, and before his servants; and they did eat. Then they rose up, and went away that night.
According to Midrash (stories that amplify those found directly in the Torah), the Witch of Ein Dor is the mother of Abner, who was a giant in service as a general to King David.
The Book of Raziel is a real book of Jewish magic. According to legend, the angel gave the book to Adam, and it contains angelology, magical astrological formulations, incantations, and amulets. Other legends say that after a period in which the book was lost, the angel Raphael rescued it from the deep and gave it to Noah after the Flood. The book itself is an amulet that protects the bearer in childbirth, during surgery, and from fire.
It is forbidden to read the Book of Raziel – but fortunately for reckless people like me who have tried it, the Book is written in the Angelic tongue and has never been properly deciphered, so it is impossible to read and understand the version of the Book that exists. The first bound and printed edition appeared in 1701 in Amsterdam, and reportedly the pages were scrambled on purpose before publication to further render the book unreadable.
The Angel of Mons is a legend that arose in 1915 concerning a vision of warrior angels that helped British soldiers at the Battle of Mons (August 22 1914) in the First World War. Supposedly the soldiers saw the angels above the battleground and it spurred them to fight to victory.
Polish diplomats in England: In 1939, delegations from the government of Poland secured pacts in August with England and France ensuring they would attack in case Poland was invaded by Germany.
Regent Horthy instituted Europe’s first quota laws against Jews in 1920, hard on the heels of both the postwar Treaty of Trianon and the disastrous failed Soviet revolution of Bela Kun, widely seen as led by Jewish Bolsheviks. In 1938, Horthy emulated the German Nuremburg laws to pass the first anti-Jewish laws in Hungary to restrict the number of Jews allowed into various professions. In May 1939, Horthy instituted the second Hungarian anti-Jewish law, which now defined Jews in racial not religious terms.
Vienna and the Reich: As of April 1938, Vienna and Austria (Hitler’s birthplace) became part of the German Reich through the Anschluss (“link-up”). Far from resisting the annexation, the Austrians welcomed the Germans with flowers and celebration.
SS Werewolves: Conceived by Goebbels at the end of WWII as a post-war partisan unit to fight on after Germany’s defeat, the Werwolves were a German guerilla commando force ordered to fight behind enemy lines. Adolf Hitler called himself “wolf” and named his eastern stronghold in Poland, “Wolf’s Lair.” Book Two of the LADY LAZARUS trilogy, called DARK VICTORY, is set in Poland during Hitler’s offensive in September 1939. Releasing in January 2012, DARK VICTORY will explore the links between Hitler and his werewolves in more detail.
The Staff: A figure described in Testament of Solomon. The Testament of Solomon is a Greek text that describes the way that King Solomon enslaved demons to build the Holy Temple at Jerusalem. He used a magic ring to compel thirty six demons to his will, and forced them to reveal their weaknesses. The Book of Raziel and the Witch of Ein Dor are never mentioned in this text, but some sources say that Solomon had the original of the Book of Raziel and it became the basis for his power over demons. Here’s an excerpt describing the Staff in the original text of the Testament of Solomon:
47. Then I ordered another demon to come before me, and there came into my presence a hound, having a very large shape, and it spoke with a loud voice, and said, "Hail, Lord, King Solomon!" And I Solomon was astounded. I said to it: Who art thou, O hound?" And it answered: "I do indeed seem to thee to be a hound, but before thou wast, O King Solomon, I was a man that wrought many unholy deeds on earth. I was surpassingly learned in letters, and was so mighty that I could hold the stars of heaven back. And many divine works did I prepare. For I do harm to men who follow after our star…. And I seize the frenzied men by the larynx, and so destroy them."
48. And I Solomon said to him: "What is thy name?" And he answered: ''Staff" (Rabdos). And I said to him: "What is thine employment? And what results canst thou achieve?" And he replied: ''Give me thy man, and I will lead him away into a mountainous spot, and will show him a green stone tossed to and fro, with which thou mayest adorn the temple of the Lord God."
49. And I Solomon, on hearing this, ordered my servant to set off with him, and to take the finger-ring bearing the seal of God with him. And I said to him: "Whoever shall show thee the green stone, seal him with this finger-ring. And mark the spot with care, and bring me the demon hither. And the demon showed him the green stone, and he sealed it, and brought the demon to me. And I Solomon decided to confine with my seal on my right hand the two, the headless demon, likewise the hound, that was so huge1; he should be bound as well. And I bade the hound keep safe the fiery spirit so that lamps as it were might by day and night cast their light through its maw on the artisans at work.
Angels and Free Will: It is not settled with finality in Jewish tradition whether angels have free will or not, and if so, to what degree. In the rabbinic literature, angels are generally regarded as not given free will, though they have intellects, can make moral arguments, and also make mistakes. As celestial as angels are, they are considered the servants of humankind, and are subordinate to virtuous human beings (which may explain why so many of them rebelled!).
Jewish Guardian Angels: Jewish tradition regarding angels is rich and vast. In rabbinic literature, it is clear that each individual soul has their own guardian angel, and each nation has their own guardian/sponsor angel as well. In addition, it is permitted to summon angels to help learn Torah or for other righteous ends; there are a number of stories in both the medieval literature and in Chasidic stories of great masters summoning angels in order to do good deeds, and even creating golems to help people in trouble.
Azeri rebels: Ziyad Juhuri is a Mountain Jew from the Soviet territory of Azerbaijan. The Mountain Jews have lived in the Northern Caucasus for well over a thousand years; they migrated north through Iran/Persia sometime after the fall of the Second Temple. In the world of LADY LAZARUS, Juhuri represents a group of religious people who have been targeted by Stalin; they seek independence for Azerbaijan as a way of escaping the persecution they face under Stalinism (Azerbaijan was briefly independent from about 1919-1922 before coming back under Russian/Soviet dominion; they were conquered by Peter the Great before that). This tangled tale will re-emerge in Book Three.
Jewel of Raziel/Sapphire Heaven: According to Jewish legend, the Book of Raziel was first engraved/imprinted within a sapphire stone. The Sapphire is a multi-level metaphor in Jewish mysticism: it is the color of heaven, and in the Hebrew Bible references to sapphires are both descriptive and a signifier of heavenly dominion. The two tablets of the Ten Commandments were also carved on sapphire stone.
Daughters of Lilith: The Testament of Solomon refers to multitudes of demons under Solomon’s control; Obizuth, Enepsigos, and Onoskelis are mentioned specifically as she-demons, and Obizuth figures most prominently as a child-killing demon with bright eyes and long hair, a stand-in for Lilith herself.
Degrees of soul: According to Kabbalah, the soul has three levels or stages, nefesh, ruach, and neshamah. On Shabbat and other holidays, the observant Jewish person temporarily gains extra levels of soul; in my story, levels of soul are stripped away as a price of doing certain kinds of magic.
Berghof/Berchtesgaden: The Berghof was Adolf Hitler’s mountain home, located in the Obersalzburg complex, near the Bavarian town of Berchtesgaden. Next to the Wolf’s Lair (Wolfsschanze) on the Eastern Front in Poland, the Berghof was the chief headquarters of Hitler during wartime, though he had a number of strongholds scattered all over Europe. For Hitler’s 50th birthday, the German government built a small observatory building high in the mountains over the Berghof called the Eagle’s Nest; Hitler rarely ascended to the Eagle’s Nest because he was afraid of heights.
33 rue de Cambon: this is the address for Coco Chanel’s famed boutique in Paris, where she first introduced her famous Chanel suit. At the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, Chanel closed the doors of her boutique.
Robert Capa: (1913-1954) The celebrated war photographer was born Endre Friedmann in Hungary, and left Budapest in 1932 to escape arrest. He worked in Berlin until Hitler came to power, then fled to France, where he fell in love with a fellow refugee, Gerda Taro, and changed his name to Robert Capa in order to sound like an American and make more money as a photographer (his plan worked).
From 1936-1939 Capa was in Spain, covering the Spanish Civil War with his fiancée, Gerda Taro, who was killed in the fighting. In late1939 Capa again fled from Paris to the United States once war broke out; his darkroom manager saved three suitcases full of negatives by bringing them to Mexico City. These “Mexican Suitcases” were lost for decades but recovered by mysterious means in 1995 and bequeathed to Capa’s estate. (this isn’t in my story, but Capa’s life is filled with the stuff of fiction.) He died while covering the Vietnam war.
Capa never married, but had a series of affairs after Gerda’s death, notably with the actress Ingrid Bergman after the end of World War II. He encouraged her to live for herself, and I had him give the same advice to Magda in Paris.
Kristallnacht: (‘Night of Broken Glass’) Huge pogrom that raged throughout the Reich in November 1938. Transformed the oppression of the German Jewish population from a matter of legislation and pauperization to physical assault and murder. Many scholars count the Holocaust as beginning at this point; others count it from the Nuremberg Laws (1935), others from 1941 (when the death camps, as opposed to concentration camps/work camps, became operational).
Cleo de Merode: A famous ballet dancer of the Belle Epoque, de Merode had an affair with the King of Belgium at the turn of the 20th century. She had an unearthly beauty that I find very witchy…so a relative of hers emerges in LADY LAZARUS.
Amulet: A “kosher” kind of Jewish magic, amulets are designed to protect the bearer against evil forces. The amulet in LADY LAZARUS is from the Book of Raziel. The amulet contains the names of Adam, Eve, various demons, the names of the four rivers of paradise, and the words from Psalm 91, “He hath given his angels charge concerning thee, that they may keep thee in all thy ways.”
Hotel Gellert: This hotel is one of Hungary’s most famous ones, an Art Nouveau creation built on the Buda side in 1918. It had (and still has) luxurious suites, an excellent restaurant, and famous thermal baths. During the Horthy years, it became a hotbed of Hungarian fascism. The hotel put a sheet of glass over the pool, and the most socially desirable balls were held there during the 1930s and 40s.
Caves under Castle Buda: Underneath Castle Buda is a huge network of prehistoric caves; from time out of mind, people have used the caves to hide themselves and their belongings, and to pursue shamanic visions (the Hungarian word for shaman is ‘Taltos’ – if you read the wonderful books of Steven Brust, the name will be familiar!). During World War II, the caves were used as a bomb shelter; it is rumored that during the Cold War the caves were used to hide tools of espionage. If you go to Budapest these days, you can tour a small section of the caves, but the tour obscures more than it reveals the caves’ origins and varied history.
Writing on the Wall: This phrase comes from a passage of the Book of Daniel. During a feast in the court of the Babylonian King Belshazzar, a disembodied hand appeared and wrote four mysterious words on the wall; the king and court were feasting using the sacred goblets and plate from the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. The King calls upon the prophet Daniel to decipher the words; Daniel does, and the King dies that very night.
Here is Daniel’s interpretation of the writing:
And this is the writing that was inscribed: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, and PARSIN. This is the interpretation of the matter: MENE, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; TEKEL, you have been weighed on the scales and found wanting; PERES, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.[3]
Great Temple of Budapest: The largest in Europe, this massive temple was built in Moorish Revival style, seats 3,000 and is located on Dohany Street in Budapest’s Seventh District. It was bombed by the Arrow Cross in 1939, used as a stable by the Nazis in World War II, and yet it miraculously survived the war and has been fully restored, with a haunting Holocaust exhibit in the courtyard. My grandparents were married here before the war broke out.
Heroes Square: Built in 1896 to celebrate 1000 years of Magyar rule, this is one of the great squares of Budapest, and is located at the head of Andrassy Street. The entire area was only finished in 1929, but the monument at the center of the square, the Millenium monument, was completed in time for the 1896 celebration.
The front of the monument is dedicated to the heroes who died for Hungary. Rising high above the monument is a column topped by a statue of the archangel Gabriel holding the crown of St. Stephen (Istvan). At the base of the column is Arpad, the founder of the Hungarian nation, and behind him the Magyar chieftains who first led their people to the Carpathian basin. These figures are more mythical than factual, but they form the basis of the Magyar identity.
The Square is a central meeting place, a place for political rallies (for example, 250,000 gathered here in 1989 for the reburial of Imre Nagy, the leader of Hungary during the 1956 Revolution who was executed by the Soviets). It’s also a place for families to go, and where my grandfather Josef learned to ride a bicycle.
Flower shop: This florist’s shop was mentioned in the ferocious and amazing memoir Castles Burning by Magda Denes; she and her mother were hidden here by Christian friends. The location is the same, but Eva’s florist in LADY LAZARUS is a fabrication.
Gleiwitz incident: the Nazi pretext for invading Poland in 1939. Reportedly, Hitler planned to invade Poland sooner, but news of the final signed pact between Poland and Great Britain made him pause. The incident is pretty much as described in the book, except the Nazis also shot prisoners from Dachau and dressed them as Polish “saboteurs.” The Nazis cynically nicknamed this action Operation Canned Goods – the “canned goods” were the murdered prisoners.
Essays Inspired by researching LADY LAZARUS
Why Werewolves are Nazis in LADY LAZARUS
It’s funny how you make assumptions based upon the world of your imagination. A number of people have told me that they didn’t understand why the werewolves in LADY LAZARUS are members of the Nazi SS. One person even expressed a wish that my story didn’t have “all those werewolves” in it (as if it would be a bad thing to have werewolves! The very notion! LOL )
My first impulse is to say, “Of course the wolves are Nazis, because…they are.” That’s just how they appear in my mind, and when I write about this stuff I go with what I have.
But my imagination is working off the research I did to create the characters and situations that end up playing out. Historical fantasy, at least the way I write it, grows out of the actual history of the period. The werewolves are Nazis in LADY LAZARUS (though not necessary 100% through the entire series) because:
1. There was an actual SS Werewolf unit — It was formed to conduct guerilla and partisan operations should the Germans lose the war.
2. Hitler’s chief outpost on the Eastern Front was called Wolf’s Lair, in Northern Poland; this was the site of the famous 1944 assassination plot depicted in the Tom Cruise movie Valkyrie.
3. Hitler called himself “wolf” and loved his German shepherd “Blondi” more than most or all of the human beings in his life. He identified strongly with wolves, and I imagined that werewolves would have strongly identified with him, to the point of naming him Pack Leader Supreme.
Generally speaking, the most fanciful parts of LADY LAZARUS are the ones closest to the truth…and the parts that seem most outrageous are the ones I didn’t make up at all…
Everyday Magic and the Book of Raziel
If you go looking for LADY LAZARUS, you will find it in the Fantasy section of the bookstore. But I prefer to call LADY LAZARUS a magical history – the story of LADY LAZARUS is a magical metamorphosis of my family’s history.
In my family’s Budapest, magic was part of the cultural fabric. My mother’s childhood in Communist Hungary was filled with séances, mediums and prophetic dreams. And this magic was part of her *Jewish* experience, it was a Jewish magic that she knew.
And even here, in America, golden and godless, I find magic all over the place. It comes up out of the ground, like oil in the Caucasus. And that magic infuses my writing. I’ve heard writers say they write unintentional comedy – they think as they write that they are writing tragedy, but the absurdity of their characters’ dilemmas and perils could make a gargoyle laugh by the end.
It’s the same with the magic. I mean to write straight up stories, but the magic hides in plain sight, and before I know it characters are working their spells, flying by night, dreaming of demons. Do you believe magic is real? If so, where does it come from?
Let me give you a single example of something magical from our everyday world that infused my writing. In LADY LAZARUS, Magda hunts a book called the Book of Raziel, written by her angel Raziel to console humankind after their expulsion from the Garden.
The thing of it is, the book exists. It’s real – I’ve held it in my hands. The book itself is an amulet, a benevolent, Jewish magic that you could find in Brooklyn, in Jerusalem, even in Budapest. The book protects the bearer in childbirth, during surgery, and from fire, and I first learned about this book when grateful patients gave my husband the book to protect him, too. My husband is a surgeon, and he has found the Book of Raziel taped over his Hasidic patients’ hearts. To these patients, the magic of the Book of Raziel is *real.*
According to legend (not my imagination) the angel gave the book to Adam, and it contains angelology, magical astrological formulations, incantations, and amulets. Other legends say that after a period in which the book was lost, the angel Raphael rescued it from the deep and gave it to Noah after the Flood.
It is forbidden to read the Book of Raziel – but fortunately for people like me who have tried it, the Book is written in the Angelic tongue and has never been properly deciphered, so it is impossible to read and understand the version of the Book that exists.
The first bound and printed edition appeared in 1701 in Amsterdam, and reportedly the pages were scrambled on purpose before publication to further render the book unreadable.
I think magic, an emanation of the One that made us, is a way to strengthen people’s native power to transcend the evils and dangers they confront in the world. It’s lying around like a weapon, like gold, like radium. It’s up to us to figure out how to use it.
My family only survived the war through a combination of courage, luck, and sheer determination. I’d like to believe that a dash of magic, the intercession of angels, gave them the strength to save themselves, too. Because what is survival in the fire, but a miracle of the first magnitude?
The Witch of Ein Dor
While researching LADY LAZARUS, I was amazed to find such rich and extensive references to magical creatures, amulets, and works of wonder in the Hebrew Bible and supplemental Jewish literature. My character Magda Lazarus is a descendant of the famed witch of Ein Dor, who is mentioned in numerous places in the Jewish canon, including the Bible itself.
The Witch of Ein Dor (Endor) is mentioned in the Bible at 1 Samuel 28. A famed necromancer, she held a séance for King Saul even though he had outlawed astrologers and sorcerers. Here’s the relevant text:
3Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had lamented him, and buried him in Ramah, even in his own city. And Saul had put away those that divined by a ghost or a familiar spirit out of the land.
4 And the Philistines gathered themselves together, and came and pitched in Shunem; and Saul gathered all Israel together, and they pitched in Gilboa.
5 And when Saul saw the host of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly.
6 And when Saul inquired of the LORD, the LORD answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets.
7 Then said Saul unto his servants: ‘Seek me a woman that divineth by a ghost, that I may go to her, and inquire of her.’ And his servants said to him: ‘Behold, there is a woman that divineth by a ghost at En-dor.’
8And Saul disguised himself, and put on other raiment, and went, he and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night; and he said: ‘Divine unto me, I pray thee, by a ghost, and bring me up whomsoever I shall name unto thee.’
9 And the woman said unto him: ‘Behold, thou knowest what Saul hath done, how he hath cut off those that divine by a ghost or a familiar spirit out of the land; wherefore then layest thou a snare for my life, to cause me to die?’
10 And Saul swore to her by the LORD, saying: ‘As the LORD liveth, there shall no punishment happen to thee for this thing.’
11 Then said the woman: ‘Whom shall I bring up unto thee?’ And he said: ‘Bring me up Samuel.’
12 And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice; and the woman spoke to Saul, saying: ‘Why hast thou deceived me? for thou art Saul.’
13 And the king said unto her: ‘Be not afraid; for what seest thou?’ And the woman said unto Saul: ‘I see a godlike being coming up out of the earth.’
14 And he said unto her: ‘What form is he of?’ And she said: ‘An old man cometh up; and he is covered with a robe.’ And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground, and prostrated himself.
15 And Samuel said to Saul: ‘Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up?’ And Saul answered: ‘I am sore distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me, and answereth me no more, neither by prophets, nor by dreams; therefore I have called thee, that thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do.’
16 And Samuel said: ‘Wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing the LORD is departed from thee, and is become thine adversary?
17 And the LORD hath wrought for Himself; as He spoke by me; and the LORD hath rent the kingdom out of thy hand, and given it to thy neighbour, even to David.
18 Because thou didst not hearken to the voice of the LORD, and didst not execute His fierce wrath upon Amalek, therefore hath the LORD done this thing unto thee this day.
19 Moreover the LORD will deliver Israel also with thee into the hand of the Philistines; and to-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me; the LORD will deliver the host of Israel also into the hand of the Philistines.’
20 Then Saul fell straightway his full length upon the earth, and was sore afraid, because of the words of Samuel; and there was no strength in him; for he had eaten no bread all the day, nor all the night.
21 And the woman came unto Saul, and saw that he was sore affrighted, and said unto him: ‘Behold, thy handmaid hath hearkened unto thy voice, and I have put my life in my hand, and have hearkened unto thy words which thou spokest unto me.
22 Now therefore, I pray thee, hearken thou also unto the voice of thy handmaid, and let me set a morsel of bread before thee; and eat, that thou mayest have strength, when thou goest on thy way.’
23 But he refused, and said: ‘I will not eat.’ But his servants, together with the woman, urged him; and he hearkened unto their voice. So he arose from the earth, and sat upon the bed.
24 And the woman had a fatted calf in the house; and she made haste, and killed it; and she took flour, and kneaded it, and did bake unleavened bread thereof;
25 and she brought it before Saul, and before his servants; and they did eat. Then they rose up, and went away that night.
The amazing thing to me about this story is that it is Saul who dies soon after this encounter with the shade of Samuel. The Witch of Ein Dor goes right on after this summoning — she even cooks Saul dinner to cheer him up! She comes to no harm whatsoever as a result of her soul-summoning.
That is NOT what I expected — I thought witches were lit on fire, stoned, or otherwise shunned. Or at least came to a bad end as a result of their calling upon the spirits. And apparently Saul had made some effort to stop the soul summoning by the mediums and witches. But not this witch!
In fact, according to Midrash (rabbinical stories that fill in some of the silent spots in the Hebrew Bible), the Witch of Ein Dor is the mother of Abner, who was a giant in service as a general to King David. As giants are reputed to be the children of the offspring of fallen angels and human women in the apocryphal Book of Enoch, that got me to wondering…
Jewish Magic
One of the things that amazed me the most in researching for LADY LAZARUS was to discover that angels, witches, protective amulets, and wonderworking are actually all ancient components of Jewish belief.
I had always imagined witches as not respectable characters as they are portrayed in traditional Christian thought (though I have always been sympathetic to witches in medieval Christian cultures as the underdogs!), and the stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer notwithstanding, I thought magical creatures were more a part of Jewish folk legend than a part of the mainstream Jewish tradition.
I was surprised and delighted to learn that witches, demons, prophecies, and works of wonder are to be found all over the Hebrew Bible and Midrash (rabbinical stories and inquiries related to the Biblical narrative) as well as the Jewish mystical texts of the Kabbalah. And the lines between prayer and wonderworking, angel and demon, and “good” magic vs. sorcery are amazingly blurred.
In order to tell the story of a magical Budapest in the summer of 1939 I had to discover a celestial counterforce that was strong enough to prevail against the very real, monstrous evil my family faced during the war.
To my mother’s family in Budapest, a connection to the inner, spiritual world was a very real lifesaver, something they could use to give them an edge in their battle to survive. It has been a revelation for me to find that this magic, this belief in angels and benign works of wonder, is a deep and intrinsic element within Jewish liturgy itself.
Magda Lazarus, the protagonist in LADY LAZARUS, is not just a witch but a *Jewish* witch — her magic is rooted within Judaic traditions and folk magic, not Christian or pagan ones. After talking with a number of different people about this book, I’ve come to realize that this tradition is one that has been obscured over the years, for whatever reasons.
Some resources for further exploration of Jewish mysticism and magic:
Secondary Sources
A Gathering of Angels by Morris B. Margolies
Jewish Myth, Magic and Mysticism by Rabbi Geoffrey W. Dennis: a fascinating blog
you can also get Rabbi Dennis’s Encyclopedia of Jewish Myth, Magic and Mysticism
Legends of the Jews, Louis Ginzberg – a collection of midrash explained by one of the giants of Conservative Jewish scholarship
Primary Sources
Testament of Solomon – fascinating pseudoepigraphical work attributed to King Solomon but probably written between the first and fifth century. Demons, amulets, vampires, angels – it’s all here, describing how Solomon captured and bound demons in order to build the First Temple.
Book of Raziel – as described above, an amulet book attributed to the angel Raziel. This is only one of a number of mystical texts containing angelic writings and incantations against demons. The Encylopedia of Jewish Myth, Magic, and Mysticism is a great place to start if you want to learn more about similar texts.
About the Author:
Michele Lang is the author of the historical urban fantasy LADY LAZARUS, the first of a series. She is also a lawyer who has practiced the unholy craft of litigation in both New York and Connecticut. She returned to her native New York shortly before 9/11, and now lives in a small town on the North Shore of Long Island with her husband, her sons, and a rotating menagerie of cats, hermit crabs, and butterflies.
Please visit Michele at www.michelelang.com
Praise for LADY LAZARUS:
“Lang crafts a creative and terse story as all of Europe awaits the September invasion of Poland. Lang is a writer to watch and is sure to have wide appeal to fans of Jim Butcher, Kat Richardson, and other urban-fantasy A-listers. An outstanding debut.”
- BOOKLIST (starred review)
“An absolutely unique protagonist in an engaging tale set against the backdrop of the greatest clash of good and evil in human history. What’s not to love about LADY LAZARUS?”
-JIM BUTCHER, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of THE DRESDEN FILES series
“Lyrical, haunting and full of a dark, sublime beauty, LADY LAZARUS is simply stunning.”
-NALINI SINGH, New York Times-bestselling author of ARCHANGEL’S KISS
“With lyrical prose, a fascinating heroine, and a darkly powerful, emotional narrative, LADY LAZARUS is simply magic. Intriguing, beautiful, and impossible to put down.”
- MELJEAN BROOK, nationally-bestselling author of THE GUARDIAN series
“It’s a dark little gem of a book. Strange and stirring and unlike any historical fantasy I’ve read before. I hope we’ll hear a lot more from Ms. Lang.”
-KAT RICHARDSON, bestselling author of the GREYWALKER series
“Filled with adventure, imbued with history, and beautifully told…”
—SUNNY, bestselling author of LUCINDA, DANGEROUSLY
“Michele Lang’s LADY LAZARUS is a beautifully written tale set in a complex, alternate Nazi Europe. The characters are dark and well developed, and the author is a talented storyteller.”
- FAITH HUNTER, bestselling author of the ROGUE MAGE and JANE YELLOWROCK series
”LADY LAZARUS is brilliantly original and delicious to read. It’s the sort of
book that keeps you up all night and leaves you wanting more.”
-DIANA PHARAOH FRANCIS, bestselling author of BITTER NIGHT
“When Willow Rosenberg from ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ went Wicca to fight the forces of darkness, I was terribly disappointed. Where was the Jewish heroine who used her own culture to save the world? Michele Lang must have read my thoughts when she wrote LADY LAZARUS, a thrilling World War II story of a Jewish witch who uses the powers of the Almighty to fight Hitler’s werewolf army…. LADY LAZARUS is a thrilling story of good versus evil.”
—NEW VOICES, A National Jewish Student Magazine